The new documentary about how George Michael was outed after being caught in an LA public toilet was yet another opportunity for some old British tabloid hacks to come across as the worst human beings imaginable.
I get that times and attitudes have changed, and the way things were done 25 years ago are not how things would be done now, but there was so little regret or reflection from these old men of Fleet Street that it really was quite startling.
As the closeted gay frontman of one of the world’s biggest pop groups, George Michael had an image to uphold.”
“All great celebrity stories are essentially about hypocrisy,” said the former deputy editor of The Sun. He’s not wrong, but that hypocrisy goes both ways, and it was disappointing that the makers of George Michael: Outed (Channel 4) didn’t really challenge him on that assertion.
As the closeted gay frontman of one of the world’s biggest pop groups, George Michael had an image to uphold for all his fans – and it was a persona the tabloid gossip columnists were happy to oblige, describing him as a notorious “womaniser” and playing up his playboy credentials.
Ironically, and in spite of the red-top tabloids’ shameful role in fuelling the gay moral panic that swept the country in the 1980s, it could be argued that the main player in his 1998 outing was George Michael himself.
Going into a public toilet and carrying out a sex act seems incredibly reckless behaviour – even if you’re not a world-famous pop star.
I wish the documentary had spent a little more time examining the cases of the ordinary men who were cruelly (and unambiguously) outed by the tabloids.
As they tearfully, and all-to-briefly, recalled their trauma, I was thankful those days are gone.”
As they tearfully, and all-to-briefly, recalled their trauma, I was thankful those days are gone.
At least I was, until the documentary reminded us, in its final moments, that the actress Rebel Wilson was outed by an Australian tabloid just last year…
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